Shopping and approval process

ABSTRACT

An electronic requisition processing method and system are disclosed. The method comprises the steps of preparing an electronic requisition including a requisition proposal; establishing an electronic list of approvers for the requisition; and at defined times, electronically recalculating the list. Preferably, this list is recalculated after each of at least some of the approvers act on the requisition; and the list is recalculated according to a given set of rules. Also, in the preferred system, the approval process is synchronous, whereby upon submission of the requisition, the requisition is immediately available for approval. Additionally, preferably, when each approver approves, the list is dynamically recalculated to take into account the availability of approvers further down in the list.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to electronic shopping; and morespecifically, the invention relates to an approval process in anelectronic requisitioning system.

2. Background Art

With the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, businesses arebeginning to use electronic requisitioning systems. In these systems, aperson who wants to make a purchase on behalf of the business preparesan electronic purchase order, obtains the appropriate approval withinthe business, and then electronically sends the order to a supplier.

It is believed that current electronic requisition systems can beimproved. For instance, it is believed that the amount of time needed tocomplete the approval process can be shortened. To elaborate, withcurrent systems, several factors contribute to the length of time neededfor the approval process. First, there may be a delay between thesubmission of a request and the time the request is available to thefirst approver. Also, when the approval of multiple approvers is needed,the approvers may act in series, one after another. This can result inlengthy delays before all the approvals are obtained, especially if oneof the approvers is not available for several days or longer. Moreover,current systems are designed primarily for use in one language, and thistends to limit the geographic scope of the system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of this invention is to provide an improved electronicrequisitioning system.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electronicrequisitioning system in which the approval process is synchronous,whereby the requisition is available for approval immediately uponsubmission.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronicrequisitioning system including an approval list that is dynamicallyrecalculated to take into account the availability of approvers.

Another object of the invention is to provide an Internet basedelectronic requisitioning system that automatically converts currenciesas a requisition is transmitted from one country to another.

These and other objectives are attained with an electronic requisitionprocessing method and system. The method comprises the steps ofpreparing an electronic requisition form including a proposal for arequisition; establishing an electronic list of approvers for therequisition; and at defined times, electronically recalculating thelist. Preferably, this list is recalculated after each of at least someof the approvers act on the requisition proposal; and, whenrecalculated, the list is recalculated according to a given set ofrules.

Also, in the preferred system, the approval process is synchronous,whereby upon submission of the requisition, the requisition isimmediately available for approval by the first approver. Additionally,preferably, when each approver approves, the approver list isdynamically recalculated to take into account the current availabilityof approvers further down in the list.

Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom a consideration of the following detailed description, given withreference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferredembodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a current requisition approval process.

FIG. 2 illustrates a requisition approval process embodying the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a current requisition approval flow that can be implementedusing a software application referred to as Flowmark, which is atrademark of The International Business Machines Corporation. To startthe process of FIG. 1, a user, represented at 2, submits a requisition,which is sent to server 14. Within half an hour, a bridge/batch job isused to assign approvers 16 and to send the approval list/summary of therequisition to the application for processing. An Email is sent to therequester.

The requisitioning application receives data from a database, referredto as ReqCat, which provides a summary of requisition and approver list.The application processes this data and sends approval notices to eachapprover via, for example, an application referred to as NotesMail. Eachapprover approves/rejects the requisition in their mail database. Theact of approving/rejecting sends an email back to the applicationserver, telling it to send the next approver a notice, or to stop theprocess.

Once all approvers have approved the requisition, or one approver hasrejected, the application sends what is known as a “finished package”back to ReqCat. This data package contains the information about whichapprovers approved/rejected, their comments, and any changes they mayhave made to the requisition, like accounting changes.

Within a half hour of receipt, ReqCat, using a bridge/batch job,processes the finished package sent from the application, eitherapproving or rejecting the requisition, and updating any data elementsthe approver may have updated. The requester and initiator receive anemail notification informing them of the status of the requisition.

FIG. 2 illustrates a requisition approval process in accordance with apreferred embodiment of this invention. In this procedure, a user,represented at 22, completes the requisition, and meanwhile, approvers,represented at 24, have been, or are, assigned. The user then submitsthe requisition; and an application server 26 processes the request andnotifies the first approver via email that a requisition awaits theirapproval.

Each approver clicks on a link in the email notification she/hereceived, and logs onto the application server via their web browser.Preferably there is a link directly to the requisition and to a view ofthe requisitions awaiting their approval.

If the approver went directly to the requisition or opened it, theapprover may click “Approve” or “Reject” and enter any comments. Certainapprovers can edit fields of the requisition. If the approver is usingthe view of requisitions requiring their approval, they can selectmultiple requisitions from this view and click “approve” or “reject” andare brought to another screen that allows them to enter a single commentand “apply to all” or enter an individual comment for each and click“continue.”

When an approver approves a requisition and if there is another approverwho needs to approve, then the act of the first approver approving therequisition sends the email to the second approver who needs to approve.Also, requesters/initiators are notified of the approval/rejection viaemail when the request is fully approved or rejected.

Preferably, at any time during the approval cycle, the user can log ontothe application server and check the approval status of the requisition,via a “Show Approvers” option, to see which approvers have not yetapproved. In addition, a requester/initiator may cancel a requisitionthat is awaiting approval, which sends an email to all the approvers whoare aware of the requisition, informing them it has been cancelled, andthe approval process stops.

Also, in this procedure, when each approver approves a requisition, theapproval list is recalculated, which takes into account any delegates ornew approver names that are further down in the list from the currentapprover. This feature is referred to as “dynamic approval calculation.”After an approval, an email is sent to the next approver. Approvers canapprove multiple requisitions from a view of requisitions awaitingapproval, or they can drill into the requisition and open it to examinerit and approve it. All approvers can enter comments, and some types ofapprovers can edit properties of the requisition.

Preferably, all actions are real-time—that is, there is no delay betweensubmission and the first approver having access to the requisition toapprove it, nor is there any delay from when one approver approves andthe next approver becomes the pending approver. This provides the userwho submitted the requisition with a universal place—the requisitioningapplication—to see which approvers have approved and which approvers areyet to approve.

Notices, referred to as nag notices, may be sent to pending approverswho have exceeded a configurable time limit for approvals. In addition,in the preferred embodiment of the invention, an approver may resideanywhere in a defined geographic area or region. For example, if Canadaand the U.S. are in the same defined geographic region, a Canadianapprover could approve requisitions submitted by a United States user.

As indicated above, users and approvers, and different approvers, may bein different countries or regions that use different currencies. Becauseof this, preferably, the requisitioning system automatically convertscurrencies as a requisition is transmitted from one country to another.In this way, the approvers see prices and costs in their localcurrencies.

The preferred embodiment of the invention, as described above in detail,provides a number of important features. One significant feature, forinstance, is the dynamic approval re-calculation. With this feature, theapprover list is recalculated each time an approver approves arequisition. This may be done, for example, to account for someone whodelegated approval for a period of time, but resumes that authority atthe end of that time period. With approval recalculation, the properapprover can be pulled back onto the list.

Also, in an embodiment of the invention that has been actually reducedto practice, the core approval logic was split into two different javaframeworks. The majority of the application is in a framework referredto as EAD4J (Enterprise Application Development Framework for Java). Asignificant portion of the application, which does the work of approvalassignment, is built in SQLJ, in a DB2 stored procedure.

This mix of technology allows for optimum performance in a historicallyslow-performing area; the DB2 stored procedure allows for queries to bebound directly to the database so they can be executed as quickly aspossible, which is not an option when executing queries via the EAD4Jframework.

While it is apparent that the invention herein disclosed is wellcalculated to fulfill the objects stated above, it will be appreciatedthat numerous modifications and embodiments may be devised by thoseskilled in the art, and it is intended that the appended claims coverall such modifications and embodiments as fall within the true spiritand scope of the present invention.

1. An electronic requisition processing method, comprising the steps:preparing an electronic requisition form including a proposal for arequisition; establishing an electronic list of approvers for therequisition; and at defined times, electronically recalculating thelist.
 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step ofrecalculating the list includes the step of recalculating the list aftereach of at least some of the approvers act on the proposal for therequisition.
 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step ofrecalculating the list includes the step of recalculating the listaccording to a given set of rules.
 4. A method according to claim 1,wherein each of the approvers is associated with a computer station, andfurther comprising the steps of: after preparing the electronicrequisition form, electronically sending the form to an applicationserver; and after receiving the form, the application server immediatelysending the form to the computer station associated with one of theapprovers.
 5. A method according to claim 1, wherein each of theapprovers is associated with a computer station, and further comprisingthe steps of: after preparing the electronic requisition form,electronically sending the form to an application server; and afterreceiving the form, the application server immediately sending noticesto the computer stations associated with at least some of the approvers,said notices indicating that the form is available at the server.
 6. Amethod according to claim 1, wherein each of the approvers is associatedwith a computer station, and further comprising the steps of, for eachof at least some of the approvers, giving the approver an associatedlength of time to act on the proposal for the requisition; and after theassociated length of time, electronically sending to the computerstation associated with the approver, a reminder notice to act on theproposal for the requisition.
 7. An electronic requisition processingsystem, comprising: means for preparing an electronic requisition formincluding a proposal for a requisition; means for establishing anelectronic list of approvers for the requisition; and means forelectronically recalculating the list at defined times.
 8. A systemaccording to claim 7, wherein the means for recalculating the listincludes means for recalculating the list after each of at least some ofthe approvers act on the proposal for the requisition.
 9. A systemaccording to claim 7, wherein the means for recalculating the listincludes means for recalculating the list according to a given set ofrules.
 10. A system according to claim 7, further comprising: aplurality of computer stations, each of the approvers being associatedwith one of the computer stations; and an application server; andwherein: the means for preparing the electronic requisition formelectronically sends the form to the application server; and afterreceiving the form, the application server immediately sending the formto the computer station associated with one of the approvers.
 11. Asystem according to claim 7, further comprising: a plurality of computerstations, wherein each of the approvers is associated with one of thecomputer stations; and an application server; and wherein: the means forpreparing the electronic requisition form electronically sends the formto the application server; and after receiving the form, the applicationserver immediately sends notices to the computer stations associatedwith at least some of the approvers, said notices indicating that theform is available at the server.
 12. A system according to claim 7,further comprising: a plurality of computer stations, wherein each ofthe approvers is associated with one of the computer stations; and anapplication server, wherein for each of at least some of the approvers,the application server gives the approver an associated length of timeto act on the proposal for the requisition; and after the associatedlength of time, electronically sends to the computer station associatedwith the approver, a reminder notice to act on the proposal for therequisition.
 13. A program storage device readable by machine, tangiblyembodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to performmethod steps for electronically processing a requisition form, saidmethod steps comprising: preparing an electronic requisition formincluding a proposal for a requisition; establishing an electronic listof approvers for the requisition; and at defined times, electronicallyrecalculating the list.
 14. A program storage device according to claim13, wherein the step of recalculating the list includes the step ofrecalculating the list after each of at least some of the approvers acton the proposal for the requisition.
 15. A program storage deviceaccording to claim 13, wherein the step of recalculating the listincludes the step of recalculating the list according to a given set ofrules.
 16. A program storage device according to claim 13, wherein eachof the approvers is associated with a computer station, and furthercomprising the steps of: after preparing the electronic requisitionform, electronically sending the form to an application server; andafter receiving the form, the application server immediately sending theform to the computer station associated with one of the approvers.
 17. Aprogram storage device according to claim 13, wherein each of theapprovers is associated with a computer station, and further comprisingthe steps of: after preparing the electronic requisition form,electronically sending the form to an application server; and afterreceiving the form, the application server immediately sending noticesto the computer stations associated with at least some of the approvers,said notices indicating that the form is available at the server.
 18. Aprogram storage device according to claim 13, wherein each of theapprovers is associated with a computer station, and further comprisingthe steps of, for each of at least some of the approvers, giving theapprover an associated length of time to act on the proposal for therequisition; and after the associated length of time, electronicallysending to the computer station associated with the approver, a remindernotice to act on the proposal for the requisition.